Research >> Economics
BTMU U.S. Business Barometer declined by 0.1%
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For the week ending July 25 2015, the BTMU U.S. Business Barometer declined by 0.1 percent to 99.4. This week’s barometer was largely driven by weak performances in production indexes. Auto and truck production, for instance, dropped by 12.6 and 1.5 percent, respectively; while coal and steel production fell by 1.3 and 0.8 percent, respectively. On the consumption side, chain store sales fell by 0.2 percent because business was particularly weak for department, drug and electronics stores; although it was offset by gains in railroad freight carloadings.
On a year-over-year basis, the barometer showed a gain of 0.7 percent, which compares to an average -3.3 percent decline over the Great Recession (ended in June 2009 according to the NBER). After flat lining in 2006, and declining from 2007 through 2009, the barometer bounced back in 2010 to rise by 3.4 percent, which was the strongest increase since 1994 (+4.0 percent), but not so impressive when compared to an -8.0 percent drop in 2009. The rate of increase for the 2013 slowed to 0.7 percent following 1.5 percent in 2012.
The smoothed version of the barometer, which attempts to account for weekly volatility, decreased by 0.1 percent to 99.5. Its year-over-year growth rate was 0.8 percent.
Posted: August 6, 2015 Thursday 10:00 AM